Unresolved Tensions
by BFgold
Summary: Buffy runs away after she defeats Angel but instead of ending up in LA she goes all the way to Boston.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Wish I did, but unfortunately it is only a day dream I get to live out while writing this.

Unresolved Tensions Chapter 1

Falling asleep on the bus is never a good idea, Buffy thinks to herself, as she tries to pop her neck working out the knots. Looking around she wonders where she is, the bus driver starts looking annoyed that she is moving.

"Um, where am I?" Buffy asks as she grabs her duffel walking down the aisle.

"Last stop on this line, Indianapolis, Indiana to be more specific. Why did you miss your stop?" the bus driver replied.

"Oh, no this is my stop I had just fallen asleep woke up slightly disorientated that's all," states Buffy as she walks out the door. Stepping down she looks around at the bus station that is in need of major repair and starts thinking about her next stop. Quickly opening up her backpack to make sure her extra cash was there she decides that perhaps Indiana is not the place for her so she heads to the ticket office hoping for a cheap ticket to some place further east.

Looking at the list of specials she speculates that perhaps the next best place to go might be some place like Boston. So she buys her ticket and hops the next bus out of Indiana. Falling asleep once again after she settles in for the remaining trip.

Waking up and eating a little bit she thinks back over her various legs of her current journey, first stop had been LA of course since those are the most frequent buses out of Sunnydale, she then just hopped onto the next bus out of LA that did not have a destination in California, which brought her to places like Arizona and Oklahoma, finally getting a tour type trip of several Midwestern states and ending up in Indianapolis.

Buffy tried to gauge how long it would take to get through the rest of her reserve money, luckily she had kept all her allowance in cash since she tended to have to replace her clothes ever so often without her moms knowledge, better for her to believe Buffy had spent it at the Bronze then just stockpiling it for emergencies and duplicates of her wardrobe. At this point she had about a thousand dollars, two years of trying not to spend any money and slowly transforming any savings into cash had left her pretty set up, not to mention odd jobs done on the weekends for her mom at the gallery.

Finally the bus pulled up in Boston, as she gets off this time she looks around for a cheap hotel to stay at and slowly starts reviewing her options. Walking up to the office of the Super 8, glancing at the greasy looking manager she knows that this hopefully will be just a short stop on her journey.

"Hey how much are your rates?" inquires Buffy as she opens the door.

"Um about thirty a night but ya know I am sure we can arrange something to lower the rates if you were strapped for money or something," offers the manager.

"Uh no that is okay how bout I just pay for the week and we go from there?" Buffy asks while placing the money on the counter.

"Room 12," states the manager slightly disappointed.

"Thanks," mutters Buffy as she grabs the key and heads to her room.

Settling in she glances around the shabby, barely kept room, and wonders how long she can last in a place like this. Knowing she is going to have to get a job before too long she unpacks what little she was able to grab and heads out for a walk, after all she had slept a bunch on the various buses already.

The part of the city Buffy ends up in looks pretty run down still, but figuring they would not really notice another new face like more upscale parts of the city she starts looking around for work. Finally after looking at a newspaper and walking around her stomach starts grumbling and she ends up at diner.

Buffy sits down at a table, glancing over the menu, decides to go with a hamburger and a milkshake figuring after getting by with snacks out of vending machines and stuff at gas stations across America she could splurge for once. Noticing there were not that many people working though and it was taking forever to get the food out she decides to sit up at the counter instead of at table.

"Be right with ya, honey" says the gal behind the counter as Buffy sits down.

"Guess this shift lost a few people or something huh?" Buffy wonders out loud to the lady, reading her name tag it would appear her name was Sonja.

"This shift or the entire diner, been like this since I started, nobody stays very long so we always need new people. Why ya interested in a job or something?" replies Sonja.

"Well actually yeah, kinda out job hunting, never really worked in food service though, would it matter?" inquires Buffy as she looks around the diner with more of a critical eye. It would appear that nobody was there expecting fast service and that the only people there were regulars that really did not have anywhere else to be.

"Ha, hey Sal we got a live one here, listen hon, nobody comes here from other jobs, it is a starter job for sure," states Sonja as she jots down someone's order from the booth behind Buffy.

"Yo, what can I do for you, my name is Sal and I am always looking for someone to help out around here ya know?" Sal says as he appears from the back with an apron on, looking like he just finished cooking up a bunch of bacon by the looks of the grease splatter.

"Yeah definitely gonna be in the need of a job and mostly willing to try new things. When would you like me to start?" Buffy says looking slightly hopeful.

"Well I got a uniform in the back that will prolly fit ya, so how bout tomorrow? Oh and I honestly don't really like to mess with things like taxes if you don't know your gonna be here for awhile so how bout I start off paying ya day by day like temp job would and we will go from there, I get way too many people end up only showing up for a week and that's way too much paper work to mess with for that short amount of time, alright?" says Sal. "Oh yeah what can I get for ya, tonight's dinner will be on me."

Buffy gives him her order and goes in the back to check out the uniform. After the meal arranges a time she will clock in the next night and heads back to her hotel.

Arriving at the hotel, she is extremely happy at how the situation ended up, still unsure of how to deal with identity thing this payment plan will definitely give her a little while to figure what to do. Not wanting to use her real name and have the council trace her, cause that would end up bad, but definitely needing info to deal with the paperwork for a job causes problems. Hopefully, before she needs identification she can track down someplace to get fake stuff. Thinking that, she drifts off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Hey I am trying to update this fan fiction on the weekend but will have to skip next weekend due to cheering on my sister as she graduates from college, so expect the next update to be in two weeks.

Chapter 2

She arrives slightly early the next day, looking good in her uniform. Sonja sees her and smiles; secretly relieved she will not be the only one on duty for tonight. Buffy gets through the training relatively without any mishaps, figuring even though she is unable to cook food at least she can serve it fairly well.

Towards the end of her shift a teen walks in yells at Sonja to get her the usual and heads towards the bathroom. Buffy glances at Sonja to see what the deal is and all she gets in reply is a smirk and a head shake.

"Every night she orders the largest burger we got plus all the fixings, an order of fries and onion rings and a chocolate shake, puts it away like nobody's business and heads out like she still have stuff to do even though its 1 in the morning," explains Sonja. "Hey why don't you cover her tonight, she is always a good tipper and I have this feeling that you are going to be covering more the night shifts then I will from now on?"

"Oh, okay, so that was large burger with everything, fries, onion rings and chocolate shake, got it," mumbles Buffy as she goes to hand in the order.

As soon as the order is up, she goes ad grabs it ad heads over to where the brunette had settled down after her bathroom trip. Looking at her she notices the brunette was just kinda wriggling around like she had a lot of energy to burn and was just waiting for a fight or something to come her way.

"Hey, my names Anne, uh I am new here and well Sonja is looking to take some earlier shifts now that I am working so she gave your order to me, hope you don't mind, here is your food," mumbles Buffy in what seems to be a very Willowy type speech. Looking up she sees the younger girl slightly smirking at her, wondering that the deal was she just kind of smiles back ad places the food down.

"Oh no prob here, hm Anne, nice name, not much I can do with it though," the girl responds. "See I have this thing about calling people their names so I will have to be on the lookout for a good name for ya."

"Nickname huh, how come you called Sonja by her name then," ponders Buffy or Anne.

"Well honestly she seems more the motherly type, so I figured I would show her more respect and just keep her name the way it was," states the brunette. "Oh by the way the name is Faith, nice to make your acquaintance. Wow that was a big word for me, and hey it just slipped out, cool all that book reading seems to be paying off. Hey don't let me keep ya from your work, that guy looks like he is getting kinda impatient or something."

Buffy glances over her shoulder and seeing the guy Faith had mentioned was trying to get someone's attention she figured she should probably help him out. Smiling at Faith she heads over to the guy and quickly gets caught back up in the rush of dealing with the customers.

After awhile she notices the table Faith had been sitting out was empty, heading over she sees the money that not only covered the bill but also quite a nice tip. Gathering up the money she goes pays off here bill and asks Sonja about how Faith just disappeared.

"Well she orders the same thing every night so she knows the amount she owes pretty good, after the first week she stopped needing a bill, so when she is done now, she puts her money down and takes off. You have to watch the table fairly well to make sure your money doesn't take off though," Sonja warned, a smile gracing her weary face. Looking like she was pretty done for the night she announces it is closing time so everybody order or either head out.

As Buffy, Sonja and Sal lock up, they congratulate Buffy, who pretty much everybody is calling Anne, on such a good night. Apparently some never last the first experience and she had faired pretty good through that experience. After agreeing to come back the next night at the same time and collecting her money she heads back to her hotel truly happy in a long time.

Before her head hits her pillow though her mind wanders back to Faith, the brunette that ate such a large amount and how she seemed like she wanted to start up a friendship at least with Anne. Hoping that maybe this would be her chance at a normal life instead of one having to deal with vampires and having to make constant life or death choices, she smiles to her self as she drifts off to sleep.

The next day was very much the same as the one before, although Anne starts making friends with more and more customers, she wonders briefly when Faith will up and before long she hears a yell along the lines of, "hey Anne the usual please" from somewhere near the bathroom. Smiling she puts in the order and heads off to another customer.

This time as she takes Faith her food she looks closer at her. Faith was wearing a light jacket with a tank top underneath and leather pants complete with well worn Doc Martins, appearing to be ready to go dancing at anytime but with an edge Anne just can not describe right away.

"Here ya go, would ya like anything else?" Anne asks as she puts down the younger girls food.

"Nothing, besides how wondering how your day went?" Faith wonders looking closer at Anne then she had last night.

"Oh well not too bad, been working here all night so hey what can I say?" Anne says smiling at Faith, wondering why she wanted to know. From her talks with Sonja, it seemed Faith was taking more of an interest in her then she had with anybody else at the dinner.

"Cool, well, thanks for the food," Faith mutters quietly, reaching down to glance at her pager. "Oh dang it I got to run pretty quickly, here is your money, thanks." As she quickly demolishes her food, she practically runs out of the diner.

Anne looks down at the money and notices a little note attached to one of the bills, saying Faiths name and if she wanted to get together on one of her nights off so Faith can show her some party spots, her pager number. Smiling to herself, Anne slips the note in her pocket and takes care of her dishes and bill, thinking maybe her dream of a normal life might just come true after all.

After two days of working both the afternoon shift and evening shift, Sal mentions that she could take a day off since he was fairly sure she would be coming back and after all he had her phone number at her hotel if an emergency happened. So she arranges a time to meet up with Faith on that Friday night to hopefully go out and party a bit, hopefully get some fun back into her life she has been sorely missing.

Faith meets her at the diner to take her to a club nearby, and insists on paying the cover for both. After all I usually end up coming here alone, you really are doing me a favor, she explains to Anne.

As Anne starts getting into the beat of the music, Faith inquires if she wants anything to drink. Declining anything, Anne looks around at the other people there. Setting her up at a table, Faith heads off to pick up a coke for herself.

"So I can tell by your voice you haven't really been here long, what area do you come from?" Faith asks as she comes back to the table.

Anne's face slightly closes off at the mention of where did she come from and glances around the room in hopes of an escape. She had been able to just mutter things about being from out west at the diner but she had the feeling that Faith was going to ask more specific things and would not get sidetracked easily. Finally muttering, "Oh well here and there, mostly out west, ya know, California?"

Guessing that Anne might have something to hide, and knowing that no need to pry before she was ready, Faith understandably replies, "Yeah I have heard about it, haven't been out there yet though, hopefully will get a chance later on."

"Hey Faith, I got a weird question and since I can't really ask the people at the diner and you are really the only other person I know, um do you possible know where someone could pick up a fake ID and stuff?" asks Anne, deciding to take a chance.

"Oh, yeah I know someone that could hook ya up, decide to get out of town and not able to grab your purse huh?" wonders Faith, while looking Anne over in a new light.

Anne just mutters, "Yeah something like that, thanks though. It would be really helpful so I can start being paid legitimately at the diner instead of under the table sort of deal."

"Yeah no prob, glad I could be of help." Faith states, smiling at Anne, knowing there was definitely more going on but deciding not to push it for right now. "I can set you up with an address and a time for tomorrow if you would like."

"That would be so great," replies Anne, a large smile starting to form on her face. Getting the feeling that maybe it all will work out after all she decides maybe she wants to head out and dance. "Hey ya interested in dancing or we just gonna sit her and talk all night?"

"Hey was just waiting for you to bring it up, all I do is dance usually, so figured while I had the chance to talk with someone, why waste it." Faith explains as she finishes off her drink and jumps up from her seat. Looking back at Anne, "So you coming or what?"

Smiling Anne just replies, "Yeah, yeah, relax we got all night to dance, you are a bit impatient sometimes aren't ya?"

"Well yeah, but usually only when it comes to fighting and dancing," Faith says while winking at Anne.

"Fighting eh?" Anne wonders as they both start to get lost in the music, swaying to the beat and keeping up to each other and leaving the people around them in the dust, not literally of course.

As the dancing continues, Buffy starts feeling better, knowing sooner or later she will have to start jogging or something to take off the extra energy from not slaying, although working at the diner has cut down on the need, apparently having to deal with customers and being on your feet for five hours at a time saps the energy right out of you.

The lights start to flicker after awhile and both girls look at each other and realize that they had danced all night, and the owner was trying to get the attention of those that were left. They wondered briefly how the other one could have had the stamina to have danced for so long but that was quickly diminished when it was discussed what a great time each had had that night. Parting ways, each headed back to their places of residence.

Buffy walked back to her hotel and quickly drifted off to sleep not having realized before what some exercise will do to your sleeping habits and how she had the lack of it had kept her up thinking all week.

Faith on the other hand meandered around not ready to get home, or what she currently considered home. After all, she had only been calling it that for a short time. She had been rescued not long ago, and although she was glad she had a roof over her head and did not have to worry about fighting to be fed sometimes she missed the freedom her old life had to offer.

Sensing something trying to sneak up behind her, she quickly turned and lunged at her would be attacker. Hitting the guy, his face morphed showing him to be one of her prey. Quickly taking the vampire out, Faith the vampire slayer finally decided it was time to get back to her watcher and report in, after all it had been a pretty good night, a quick patrol coupled with some really great dancing after taking care of one of her double H's.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: In honor of today the 18th of July I updated, sorry I didn't get it out sooner. Standard disclaimers of the still dreaming I own Buffy but still sad about the reality of not.

Unresolved Tensions Chapter 3

As Buffy wakes up and starts to get ready for the day of grease and non stop standing, she can not get the brunette out of her mind. She keeps replaying the image of the younger girl dancing to the music, body swaying, face so innocent and truly happy. Glancing at the information Faith had given her about the contact she knows, she headed off to get a fake ID before work.

Faith enters the diner as usual, covered in dust, as she heads off toward the bathroom, spotting Buffy, yells out "Hey Anne the usual please." During patrol there had been a demon that had some funky blood so it took longer to get presentable. Finally when she arrived at her usual table there was already food down, glancing at Anne to make sure it was hers she sits down and tucks in.

"Thanks Anne for getting it set, I fell outside so had to clean up a bit," Faith uses as an excuse when Buffy brings her shake to the table.

"Hey no worries, I just waited on the shake so it wouldn't melt before you could get to it, glad I could help and thanks for last night and the help from your friend." Buffy says as she sets down the shake. "I will start receiving checks every week from now on."

"Glad I could be of help too, hey I was wondering when are ya working tomorrow, I know this cool place that has really cheap movies, although they are slightly old," asks Faith after she takes a sip of her shake.

"Working the night shift like always but I don't have the afternoon also, that would be cool," responds Buffy excitedly. It had been a real long time since she had gone to movies, pretty much that kind of stuff ended when Angel became Angelus and she had to start watching real close when she was out at night. Dark movie theaters are a big no no when you are being stalked by a dead madman. Writing her information down on a napkin she hands it to Faith saying, "here is where I am staying and my phone number, come get me or give a call and what not when you want to go, since you paid for last night I will cover tomorrow, but you get to pick the movie and time. A movie sounds cool and I haven't been to one in a real long time so anything playing works for me and I got no preferences for genre so yeah go with what ya want. Does that work for you?'

"Yep, I guess so, although I think we should prolly split the cost since its not a date or anything," Faith replies.

"Well last night wasn't a date and you still took care of the cover price, so lets just say this is calling us even, besides how else can I spend the money I get from your tips, think of it as collecting on an investment," states Buffy as she slowly backs away smirking. "Oh and don't use that as an excuse to start tipping more, I know your regular amount now, and definitely will know what caused the increase."

"Aw, how did ya know thats what I was planning on doing, it seems like you know me far to well already," complains Faith as she sighs and starts digging in.

Buffy turns back to her other customers, still smiling knowing that the next day would be a nice change from the routine she has already created by working at the diner for the last week. Since she tended to eat whatever was left over at the diner she hardly spent any of her money besides on the cost of her hotel, which she had already paid up for the end of the month. Looking at the window into the night it seemed like this summer vacation would definitely be one to remember and way better then past ones, which smirking to herself she thinks, is slightly weird because this was one where she had to be completely responsible for looking out for herself.

Faith leaves the money she owes and quietly makes her way out of the diner, knowing that for once she won't be just wandering around hoping to come across a vampire nest during the day and reading boring books assigned to her by her watcher. She really did like her watcher it was just she just didn't like the whole sitting and reading thing, that's why she dropped out of school. Although thanks to her watcher she now had already passed the GED at least. Her watcher was pretty nice giving her a place to live and providing for her for the most part, but there still wasn't much of a connection between the two of them.

Her watcher had found her just over a year ago, apparently she had been hard to track down after she was identified as a potential since she ran away from her family years before that. Introducing herself as her new legal guardian named Emma, she quickly became some what protective of Faith and trying to do what was best for her from more of a parent point of view. Faith knew that that part of their relationship had to be more secretive, Emma being very up front about how most watchers were taken away if there were hints about them becoming attached in any form to their charges, she had a good feeling about their relationship.

Finishing off a couple of vampires on the way to her house, Faith wondered how Anne would react if she ever found out what Faith ended up doing for a living, a rather short projected living at that. Her job at the diner would seem so much better then one constantly fighting. Thinking about fighting, Faith still couldn't believe that she had slipped up and mentioned fighting to Anne, luckily it seemed she wasn't as observant as most and didn't catch it, she still hoped it would not come up in the future.

"Hey Emma I'm back, dusted about four vampires tonight, didn't come across any signs of anything major happening," Faith rattles off quickly.

"That's good Faith, make sure you record that all in your journal okay, I will ask you more details tomorrow, just get some sleep right now, I posted your training for tomorrow and what I want you to research okay?" replies Emma. Knowing that it takes forever for Faith to surface in the morning, they got in the routine of setting up schedules ahead of time so Faith can deem how early she has to wake up and get her own stubborn self up by then.

"That's cool, I want to make a movie so expect me to get it all down more earlier the later," mumbles Faith as she notes her work and then heads off to bed.

Waking up early, Buffy gets up and changes into an outfit more suited for her patrols and training and heads out for a morning jog. The clothing seems slightly foreign to her since she hasn't donned them since before the Angelus incident and she can feel memories starting to pour back into her mind that she had successfully blocked up until this point.

She had just finished showering and getting ready when Faith arrived at her door with a knock, surprised at how early she was Buffy went and greeted her. At least it was daylight and she didn't have to worry about it being weird about inviting her in.

"Hey come on in, it's not much but it does quite well for right now," shrugging Buffy glances around the crummy room that she had tried to put into some semblance of order and cleanliness. "At least the manager doesn't complain about my coming in to late ad all, compared to the other guests who usually pay by the hour at least I am a for sure room that will be paid for."

Looking around Faith sees that Anne has even less possessions then she does currently and wonders about what could have happened that made her leave most of her stuff behind. Knowing several reasons and having been there herself, she still figures the best plan is just be there for her and when she is ready listen when Anne finally lets out what makes that sad look in her eyes come back every now and then.

"Hey I have stayed in worse actually, this isn't that bad, so do you mind an action movie?" ask Faith as they head out the door.

"No complaints here, haven't been to a movie since well, its just been a really long time," Anne states. Unfortunately, the sad look creeping slightly back onto her face towards the end of her statement.

"Well any time your up for a movie just let me know, I usually just spend the day doing nothing exciting anyways," smiling Faith announces. "I really don't meet that many people that get out during the day anymore so it's nice to be walking around in the sun if ya know what I mean."

Smirking slightly to her self Buffy replies, "I honestly do."

Looking at her quizzically, Faith lets it slide for now, stating, "Well here we are, and hey right on time."

Settling in to watch the movie neither of them notice how close they end up sitting and how they always end up touching when going for the popcorn they decided to split. Just knowing that for some odd reason they were sitting next to someone who might finally understand them like not many people could. The instant ability to click was a great sign of what the future could hold.

After the movie they start walking toward the diner so Buffy could start her shift talking along the way.

"So how long are you going to be around here for anyways?" asks Faith, watching Anne out of the corner of her eye.

"Um, well, I guess when I am ready to face the demons that haunt my past," mutters Anne, tensing just thinking about home made her want to curl up in a ball somewhere.

"Ah, I hear ya, just had to escape to work things out on your own, totally get that," Faith replies kind of darkly to herself. "Everybody has their own demons, just some seem more real then others."

"Oh we're here, guess I will see ya later for your late night snack?" asks Anne, looking slightly hopeful.

"Yep, of course, ya think I would miss my nightly investment opportunity," smirking Faith nods toward the diner. "I haven't missed a night yet that your there have I?"

Blushing Anne looks down and says, "Nope you haven't, well cept for the night we went dancing, I am not sure what ya did actually, but yeah you definitely have made a regular appearance."

"Mm, so you will definitely see me once again tonight, so never fear Faith is here," confidently Faith states as she backs away from the diner. "Until then have a good night."

"Thanks see ya soon," Anne replies as Faith disappears around the corner.


End file.
